Knickerbockers Review

I keep promising I’ll do better with this author/promotion thing, but then times ticks away…

So, while I could dive heavily into the technical writing that actually makes me money these days, let me take a few moments to post something on here. As promised, I have a couple of topics in mind to write about in the near future, so we’ll begin with one of those.

The first topic is a review of my first Knickerbockers experience.

What is Knickerbockers? It’s a photography company that allows people to sell coupons for professional pictures. Those people keep, I think, all profits from those coupons, but the company takes more shots in hopes of persuading people into buying bigger packages.

My experience, to be honest, was not so great. First of all, I had issues with the person selling the coupons, as in my two-year-old niece didn’t get her pictures because this woman, in spite of being self-assured she’d done everything she could, didn’t do what she was supposed to do until pushed by a third party. I will no longer buy coupons from her (or the organization she represented since she dragged them down during her own defense), but Knickerbockers can’t be blamed for this. They aren’t responsible for this part of the process.

Knickerbockers can, however, be blamed for having dumb rules. For instance, your coupon has to be for an immediate household member, as in no one outside of your household can be in your picture. If I buy the coupon, I should be able to line up stuffed animals for the shot if want to. What if the Avengers come to town and will sit for the picture? Can I not get Iron Man sitting by the Christmas tree, surrounded by his superhero buddies? I would want that picture!

Anyway, two out of three of my nieces did get a picture at their school’s cafeteria. When I walked into the room with my sister and nieces, I was a little iffy about the Christmas scene since everything looked a little worse-for-wear with the tree and fence post, but hey. That could’ve just been what they were going for. And, I figured the photographer might’ve known more about taking the shots than I did, which I reminded myself when I noticed he was getting shots that were really close up to my girls in the pictures. Now, close shots are great and all, but if you’re trying to get a back setting, shouldn’t there be more back setting? Again, though, I’m not the photographer. I let it go and hoped I’d be pleasantly surprised when the pictures came back.

I wasn’t because, as it turned out, I was right. He did get too close, to the point where you see very little tree on one side and very little fence on the other (you can’t even tell what the fence is). Honestly, it looks like a picture you could take at home with little skill whatsoever—just put your kids in front of a white wall and get little to nothing Christmas-ish in your shot.

I’d post the picture to prove this to you, but I didn’t buy any additional items, including the disc. That being said, I probably don’t have the right to post the picture. Suffice it to say, though, there was just no way I was gonna pay $275 for pictures that looked so unprofessional and boring.

Now, judging by the pictures on the website, it’s entirely possible that we just got a bad photographer. But, still, the overall experience isn’t one I’d recommend passing on. Overall, I’d give it 2 out of 5 cupcakes.